Google AdWords has announced that it is implementing new enhancements to its location targeting capabilities to make location targeting clearer and more powerful.

The first update re-words the targeting options to make them easier to understand for advertisers. In the past, this was the option for advanced location targeting:

If you were targeting using the first option “Target using either physical location or search intent” your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad would show to people in your targeted location as long as they were not searching for something related to a different location.

Below is the new option that Google AdWords recently released:

The second addition applies location targeting to ads on the Google Display Network (GDN). Previously, the only location targeting was the physical location of the searcher. Now both the location of the user and the content of the page will dictate location targeting on the GDN. The default option for the GDN is to show to “People in or viewing pages about your targeted location”.

Google also changed the advanced location exclusion features to make a more restrictive default option for “People in, searching for, or viewing pages about my excluded location”. This new option helps advertisers avoid getting impressions for excluded areas, regardless of whether your customers are located or interested in those locations. Here are the new advanced location exclusion options: